Abstract

The Creative Industries Strategy adopted by the Welsh Assembly
Government (Assembly Government) in 2004 arose from the belief
that this is a sector of exceptional importance for Wales. The creative
industries sector is currently identiﬁ ed as one of six strategically
important sectors for the Welsh economy, alongside bioscience, health,
ﬁ nancial services, automotive and aerospace. In addition, the sectoral
approach adopted by the Government names telecommunications and
ICT as one of three core or enabling sectors. A working assumption
of this review is that the future of the creative industries cannot be
properly understood or shaped without close reference to the country’s
digital communications infrastructure and the broader digital economy.
According to Digital Britain, the UK Government’s framework for
policy in this area, one tenth of UK economic output is accounted for
by the digital sector. Wales will only succeed in this dynamic area of
the economy if it sets its own policy framework, supported by the right
institutional arrangements, to help nurture creative businesses within
Wales.
The Assembly Government has had a creative industries strategy since
2004. Elements of this strategy, which place a strong emphasis upon
supporting the exploitation of intellectual property, have been imitated
elsewhere in the UK. It is also clear, however, that the 2004 strategy
has failed to establish a sufﬁ ciently coherent strategic approach to the
creative sector and that this has resulted in some loss of conﬁ dence
in the Assembly Government’s activities. This review identiﬁ es gaps in
the 2004 strategy’s sectoral coverage and proposes ways of refreshing
the strategy and improving the machinery used to establish strategic
direction and deliver more effective business support. The aim is to build
upon what is sound.